Free Pride Manifesto

Pride should be free. Pride should be a protest. Pride should be accessible to all. Instead it has become over-commercialised and de-radicalised, and charges money to people if they want to participate. Pride belongs to LGBTQIA+ people and we want it back.

We have grown tired of mainstream Pride’s lack of inclusiveness for transgender, intersex and asexual people and other marginalized groups that make part of our LGBTQIA+ communities, including disabled people/people with disabilities and people of colour.

Free Pride seeks to address three main issues:

* Anti-commercialisation – Pride is for people not for corporations to make themselves look LGBT+ friendly and make profit off us, however, our frustration is aimed at the commercial forces at work in Pride and not the LGBTQIA+ who participate in what has become.

* Inclusivity – We want to create a safer space that prioritises the voices of the most marginalised and is accessible to all.

* Pride is a protest – From the harassment and violence levelled at the Trans community to the treatment of LGBTQIA+ asylum seekers, we are continually reminded that society isn’t for us and that needs to change. Pride should be a platform to demand and make that change, not just an opportunity to be sold things and promoted to.

We don’t have money or commercial sponsors, but when we work together we are powerful. We are a group of LGBTQIA+ people with a vision to build something different and we encourage people and groups to join us in organising alternative grass-roots events. We want to “Free Pride”.